Thanatos
by PennedTwice
Summary: If given the choice, would you prefer to die alone?


**Thanatos**. Hated by mortals and gods alike, the merciless and indiscriminate overseer of death.

"But, imagine if you had to go _alone_."

* * *

She woke as soon as she heard the telling whine of rusted hinges: someone had finally pushed open the gate to enter the narrow prison corridor. Several pairs of worn and torn standard-issue boots quickly stepped though and darted across the concrete. Haruno Sakura barely had enough time to look up from her hunched position on the ground before they stopped to a sudden halt right before her cell.

A waspy voice was heard as an equally shaky pair of legs shuffled to the edge of the closed bars.

"Prisoner one hundred and fifty-three," it wheezed, voice faintly traveling though. "You are to be executed today by lethal injection, as per your request, for treason against the State. Any act of defiance as we escort you to the grounds will not go unpunished, despite your impending death."

He took a heaving breath, clearly winded by the effort.

"Do not try us, you have been warned."

Sakura scoffed inwardly. Actually doing so would have irritated her bruised ribs by flaring her lungs against them. She was rooted to the ground beneath her where her back rested against the stone wall and her arms were lying lifelessly beside her. It was the only comfortable position she was able to shift into, despite the deep irritation it caused the wounds on her body. Fingers that had been broken during particularly violent interrogations were numbed beyond pain. Even if they were ever set straight again, she was sure to suffer some mild form of arthritis. The remains of her medic skirt were bloodied, torn, and frayed, and the rest of her clothes were in no better shape. Her throbbing head and the small bump nestled beneath her cranium evidently meant that she had been knocked unconscious the day before, that the sleep she had just roused from had not come naturally.

The same man who spoke her sentence hastily motioned towards her and two masked ANBU wrenched open the small gate into her cell. Sakura did not resist as they snatched her off the ground and stumbled after them on wobbly knees and weak ankles; she could not remember the last time she stood up to walk by her own will. The sudden and aggressive stirring of her body from its previous position made her acutely aware of all the swells and scratches that littered the surface of her skin. She grimly noticed what she had previously thought was a bruised rib was actually a fractured one.

As she was dragged down the hall, head lolling weakly from side to side, she heard the same eerie voice echo faintly down the corridor where another squad of ANBU had crowded around the cell beside hers.

"Prisoner one hundred and fifty-four, to be executed for treason and other high crimes against the State and his excellency, Lord Danzo..."

* * *

It was dawn, Sakura noticed. She wasn't surprised; they probably wanted to rid their dirty hands of her, of them, as soon as they possibly could.

As she was escorted out the double prison doors, a light breeze tousled her disheveled hair and caused a shiver to crawl down her spine. The rustling of clothes and murmuring voices behind her told her the other squad of ANBU were quickly approaching with their own prisoner in tow. Before she could turn to look behind her, she was given a harsh tug and was dragged away again.

It seemed it was going to be a beautiful morning in Konoha, and on any other day, she would have enjoyed every moment of it. Today, however, it seemed more like a mockery to her plight.

Mornings like this, shinobi of all ranks would be out and about, darting across rooftops either returning from a mission or heading out for one. Academy and civilian children alike would be running to their classes and shops would be opening for another busy day. She herself would have been heading down to the hospital for work or even to the training grounds to work on her taijutsu. Instead, she was being led to her death, or more accurately, to a gray courtyard walled by four fences, which Danzo had ordered to be laid out for purposes like this. A small, faceless crowd had already gathered there, either in anticipation or mourning; Sakura would never know and didn't care to find out.

Many more black-clad ANBU were dispersed among the throng, accompanied by their ROOT counterparts, undoubtedly stationed by Danzo. Above them all on a squat wooden platform stood Danzo himself, gazing down at the whole affair. The mere sight of him made raw bile rise into her throat.

She was led to the center of the grounds. One of the ANBU previously supporting her roughly knocked her behind the knees, forcing her to collapse. Moments later, prisoner one hundred and fifty-four was likewise pushed unceremoniously to the ground beside her. Sakura's eyes flickered to her left briefly only to see the thin silver wristlet that sat on the prisoner's forearm and marked him for death row. Her skin was prickling at his proximity and she unconsciously fingered a similar wristlet on her own forearm. She had feared she would be placed in a situation like this, with him, and with no way of escaping. He was currently bound, but she knew he could easily escape at any given moment. Perhaps he allowed himself to be in this situation only to humor Danzo and his men. Yet, knowing his reputation, that probably wasn't the case. He was dangerous as he was unreadable.

His guard tore off the blindfold that had been wrapped around his face, revealing two sharp black eyes.

"Uchiha Itachi..."

The crowd quieted as Danzo spoke.

"...and Haruno Sakura."

She tried to focus her gaze at anyone, at anything, but Danzo, anger, betrayal, and dismay all bubbling up to the surface.

"You have both been brought here before the council and I today to receive punishment for your heinous crimes against Konoha, for your intolerable acts against the very principles that this great nation was built on."

Danzo's eyes narrowed thinly as he scowled.

"Uchiha Itachi, you know best why you're here. The magnitude of your crimes have cost the lives of countless people, have destroyed villages, and have brought nations to the verge of war."

Itachi had not moved from his spot since he arrived. His eyes, however, freed from the blindfolds, were fixated on Danzo, almost challenging him, if not for the fact he seemed to be staring right through him.

Unperturbed, Danzo shifted his glare to Sakura.

"It disappoints me to see you here like this before me," he sneered. "You were once respected as the Sixth Hokage's apprentice. But today, you kneel before me as a traitor to the nation, for not only removing the Jinchuriki from our protection and escaping your capture, but aligning yourself with a member of Akatsuki and daring to pose a threat to our peaceful nation."

The crowd had remained quiet all throughout his tirade but stirred at that very last snippet. Most of Konoha had been aware that Sakura had defected from the village, but not the fact that she chose to work alongside a criminal. For most of the unconvinced, it gave them reason to condemn her.

"This morning, both of you will be executed." He paused, clearly pleased with himself.

Sakura licked her broken lips tenderly, tasting some of the blood that seeped through the cracks, and for the first time since they'd both arrived on the grounds, she took a good look at the man beside her.

The first thing she noticed was his hair. At some point, either during their capture or imprisonment, his hair tie had been torn off and now his hair hung in long drapes around his face and shoulders. Other than that, he looked no better than her. Clothes torn, cuts and bruises everywhere, Itachi looked like any other prisoner who had been tortured and kept under inhumane circumstances. It was almost hard to believe this was the man listed in the bingo book under "do not approach under any circumstances." She didn't need to remind herself, though, that he would be dangerous until the very moment of his death.

Not long after defecting from Konoha, she had found him in a remote town, beaten and wounded. Without paying heed to her conscience, she hesitantly offered him sanctuary and in return, she demanded his cooperation in helping Naruto escape from Danzo's confinement in Konoha. Ever since Danzo's takeover, after Tsunade's untimely death, Naruto had been placed under highly guarded house arrest, no doubt to prevent him from leading or inspiring any possible coups d'tat. Outwardly, Danzo had claimed his actions were for the protection of the villagers, and for Naruto himself. Sakura had already tried to help him escape, sneaking in during the rotation of several guards, but failed, and was put on constant surveillance herself. In desperation, she fled from the village and wound up in a little town that straddled the border of Konoha, with a dying, but still dangerous, Akatsuki in her hands.

However, to her great surprise, and inner relief, he had agreed to assist her and gave no explanation other than that the Akatsuki's goals no longer suited his purpose.

Weeks that grew into months had gone by before they had reached a workable plan to enter Konoha unseen and free Naruto. All throughout, Sakura constantly checked herself, preventing herself from trusting him more than she needed to. She knew better; to trust him would ensure her death.

She knew well that he brought death wherever he went. He was death, or rather, an eloquent and soft-spoken grim reaper. On the battlefield, he solely determined who lived and who died, escorting any and all he saw fit to perish. She pointed out the fact to him once, to which he enigmatically replied,

"Would you rather die alone?"

And now here she was, stuck between a figurative rock and hard place, with no other option but to literally, and suitably, place her life in the hands of the reaper.

She searched for his eyes behind the drapes of dark hair.

A few words whispered brokenly under her breath was all she had in her. She had no chakra, no fight left, and Itachi had his eyes. The only precautions Danzo took against the sharingan was the blindfold that was previously draped over Itachi's eyes. He probably assumed that, in the case Itachi decided to use them, Danzo could use his own gruesomely harvested sharingan to overpower him.

Sakura decided; she could wait no longer. The execution was taking longer than expected, and she knew Danzo was already well past his limit.

She smacked her lips together, slowly building up her courage.

"Itachi," she breathed, waiting for a reply. From her angle, it looked as though his eyes remained fixed on Danzo.

"Itachi," she called again, straining her voice, "don't let me die... can't die like this."

It's not going to work, she told herself. Still, what had she to lose.

"Please," she begged suddenly.

Danzo glared down at her distastefully. "Any pleads for mercy should be directed to me, Haruno."

Danzo flicked a hand towards his two prisoners and the ANBU guards suddenly strengthened their hold on them.

"I've given both of you enough time to repent for your crimes and to beg for forgiveness before me," he drawled. "Since you've failed to do either, I've no choice but to proceed. May this be a lesson to any who wish to follow in your footsteps, and may you forever be remembered as traitors to Konoha."

Without warning, a sharp prick pierced the side of her neck and another set of hands held her down as she tried to thrash and shrink away from the needle. In her hypersensitive state, she could feel the liquid crawl into her throbbing veins and invade her system. By the path it took, she could tell it was going to be a slow and painful death.

Rough hands loosened their hold on her and she slowly slipped to the ground. Motor functions lost, she thought. Vision and smell soon to follow. Then the attack on major organs will begin and Sakura could do nothing but lay on the ground. She couldn't cry even if she wanted to.

She didn't notice the ANBU restraining Itachi suddenly collapse to the ground. Or that the one previously restraining her quickly followed suit. All she felt was the slow, steady beating of her heart, a light tickle of hair on her neck, and a warm breath spreading over her ear.

"As you wish.

* * *

**It's ItaSaku if you squint really hard... right?**

**This was, more than anything, an exercise for me to practice writing more descriptively. Usually, my writing tends to be short and blunt, but that wouldn't make for a very lovely story would it? I also tried to characterize Itachi as a literal grim reaper, as you can see, therefore, he's not very "in-character." I think I've been reading too much shounen manga lately. **

**As always, I'm open for constructive criticism. Thanks for reading! xx**


End file.
